Prime Minister David Cameron yesterday officially opened Williams’ new £8 million advanced engineering facility at the team’s Formula One headquarters in Grove.

The state-of-the-art site research and development site features a ground-floor workshop with Formula One-inspired build bays that can be used for one-off projects or low-volume production.

The business has been operating since 2011 and has so far, with the aid of the 250 design engineers, played a key role in a number of engineering projects, not just in motor sport.

To date Williams Advanced Engineering has developed the Jaguar C-X75, one of the most sophisticated hybrid supercars ever made, and is the sole supplier of the batteries that will power the cars competing in Formula E, the world’s first fully electric racing series.

Via Williams’ F1 expertise, the company is also using its flywheel energy storage technology on energy grids in the Scottish highlands in a project backed by the government’s Department for Energy and Climate Change.

Speaking at the launch of a company run by a man on trial for corruption and bribery, the Prime Minister said: “Formula One is a world beating, hi-tech industry and I am very proud Britain and British engineers and designers play such a key role within it.”